Goodbye To All That
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and two: She's had her dream for so long, the idea of it not coming true is almost terrifying.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 18th cycle. Now cycle 19!_

**TV Tiles Cycle **- So this is Cycle 20! I wanted to do something special, so here we are! Some of you may remember a while back me asking for episode titles from tv shows. I've always found that a lot of shows have great episode titles, so this is how this cycle came to be. Each story will be inspired and titled after an episode from a different show. The influence of the episode may vary from story to story, not seeking to rely completely on it ;) You'll see...  
**Today's Show/Title:** "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" - _Goodbye To All That_

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**"Goodbye To All That"  
Tina **

The moment Bryan Ryan had asked them to write down their dreams, what they wanted to be in the future, Tina had known immediately what she was going to write down; she'd known for about as long as she could remember.

She'd been shy growing up, and maybe no one would ever understand this feeling she'd get when she was singing or dancing. She could always be so much braver when she was up there. The word, the problems, they just went away. It was no wonder, back when she still put on her stutter, that it would slip away as she performed… She was right where she wanted to be, and that stutter was the stuff of another world, the one where she made herself dark and odd.

But in her dreams she could be the brave one all the time. She knew they lived in a small town, but she didn't care anymore, and that was thanks to Glee Club. It had allowed for her to see things so much clearer and that light stretched all the way to dreams and possibilities… and she couldn't wait to arrive.

Bryan Ryan rolled in like the fog. He let them all grasp at their dreams and then yanked them away, stomped them flat. In that one instant, hearing those words, her heart ached… She felt herself tear up…

Of course she thought about the possibility that none of it would happen and she'd spend the rest of her life in Lima, Ohio, with no more dream and only boring reality to make up her days. She thought about it, but she didn't want to. It usually popped up when she least wanted it, when she was stressed or disappointed, and it only made matters worse. But then in the end someone or something would come along and they'd make things okay again. They'd clear away the bad and then she could be the way she wanted to be, she could dream again.

But until such a person or thing came along, she was alone with her misery and it would not let her be.

What if she just wasn't good enough? Maybe that was why she hardly ever got solos… Maybe she was just someone you threw a pity solo at; she wouldn't be surprised. Either that or the others were just so much better at getting Mr. Schuester to see them… So then the only thing she had to blame for ending up where she had or, really, for where she wasn't ending up, was herself, and her silly inability to speak up for herself.

It would start there, and then it would just get worse and worse, like she was being sucked into quicksand and no matter how she struggled to pull herself out, all she did was get buried in even faster. But then she couldn't just sit there and do nothing either while all this was happening. She was trapped either way.

The thing with Glee Club though… twenty-four hands. There were twenty-four hands there to yank her out of her pit of despair. Friends… in various senses of the term… who understood her dream because it was theirs too, in many cases… And she had a teacher… Maybe she didn't get solos all the time, but deep down she knew he did try. And maybe she didn't get so many shots individually, but she did get to be a part of something special, to be within that group. She spent so much time on her own before this, and maybe that was what she thought she wanted, but now it was all the opposite… Now the thought of not having them and the club in her life was almost just as bad as the thought of not having her dream to look forward to.

So to hell with Bryan Ryan, to Coach Sylvester and all the others who tried to tell her she couldn't have the things that had brought so much happiness to her life. She didn't know what would happen in her life, but she'd do everything in her power to be happy with it. Whether that meant having her dream just as she'd envisioned it or finding something just as good or even better… She didn't know, but she didn't want to think too hard, not if she could help it…

And soon after that, she decided to help spread that feeling, when she discovered one of her fellow Glee Club members – Artie, no less – had his own dream on the line. Now she was on a mission, and she felt ready… They were all only getting started, it wasn't time to say goodbye.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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